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Munson: Film reawakens Elk Horn's Danish pride

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Published 11:29 p.m. CT Dec. 10, 2013

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Danish filmmakers Anders Birch and Jakob Vølver returned to Elk Horn, Ia., in recent weeks for a sequel after their first documentary on the small Iowa town became a surprise hit in their home country.

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Danish filmmaker Jakob Vølver was back in Elk Horn Monday filming a sequel to the documentary “Denmark on the Prairie.”(Photo: Kyle Munson/The Register)Buy Photo

ELK HORN, Ia. – Jakob Vølver lugs a video camera up and down the street and boasts that his Viking blood keeps him plenty warm on this 3-degree day in the middle of the snowy Iowa prairie.

"Although," he adds, "I probably have more burritos running through my body."

Such is the diet of a busy Danish Viking landlocked for a few weeks in the vicinity of small-town convenience stores.

The 38-year-old journalist and filmmaker has helped lavish this particular patch of prairie with newfound fame in his homeland of 5½ million Danes.

Vølver and co-director Anders Birch were responsible for the documentary "Denmark on the Prairie" that aired for an hour in August in their home country. It drew rapturous reviews and triggered a flood of Danish interest in Elk Horn.

The filmmakers by chance discovered this town of 650 people, where about half the residents still claim Danish ancestry, when Birch stumbled into an Elk Horn native in a Kansas City bar.

Later, after wrapping their final edit in Copenhagen, Vølver and Birch felt less than confident as they bicycled home from the studio.

"At least it doesn't suck," was as much effusiveness as Vølver could muster.

Yet the film has become the pivotal Ken Burns "Civil War" moment of their careers. Vølver, who has lived in New York for the last three years, is moving back to Denmark with his American wife to capitalize on new projects.

Danish TV was so smitten that it has enlisted the directors to film a 38-minute sequel, Vølver says, to see how Elk Horn's "Danishness is kind of evolving and maybe getting an update."

We sit in an Elk Horn convenience store over a lunch of pulled pork sandwiches rather than burritos.

"Hi, Kevin!" Vølver waves from the table as a familiar local face sweeps through the door, followed by a chilly gust.

The residents of Elk Horn at first "didn't seem like they had an honest interest in Denmark 2013," Vølver says of what has changed since his first visit in February.

But gregarious Mayor Stan Jens and 26-year-old telephone company employee Jordan Hansen, both featured in the original documentary, have since trekked to Denmark.

Facebook has erupted with cross-continental chatter.

Another local resident featured in the film, Janis Fajen, received a 4-inch-tall jar of white sand from the beaches of Løkken on the west coast of Jutland.

"I know how much you dream about going to Denmark, but saw that you were not well enough for the trip," read the accompanying letter from Lene Sørensen of Nørresundby. "Therefore I am sending you a piece of Denmark instead."

Evidence of Danish pride reinvigorated at least in part by the documentary seems to be everywhere.

Teacher Lisa Dreier's 54 talented and gifted students in kindergarten through third grade in the local school delved this fall into a new curriculum of Danish language, government and culture.

Math and science students have visited the 165-year-old Danish Windmill for hands-on instruction in gear ratios and wind power.

The restaurant Vittles at the north end of town plans to rename itself Cafe Copenhagen this month if all the paperwork is approved.

Younger residents have pledged to help preserve Danish folk dancing — a tradition shown to be on the wane in the first documentary.

More than 30 runners joined the inaugural "Naughty or Nisse" 5K Polar Run that stretched from the Little Mermaid statue in nearby Kimballton to the windmill in Elk Horn as part of the 35th annual Christmas "Jule­fest" at the end of November.

Perhaps curious Danes will trek here in May for the town's Tivoli Fest?

Lisa Steen Riggs, a key community booster since 1977 from her office in the windmill as its general manager, has fielded serious interest from Danish corporations.

"Are we missing an opportunity here?" she wonders.

So Steen Riggs reached out to state economic development, tourism and cultural officials to set up meetings and help seize the moment.

This could turn out to be an immigration wave that even U.S. Rep. Steve King appreciates.

Could Elk Horn develop its Danish brand — marketed as the "Danish Villages" with Kimballton — into a magnet on par with, say, Pella, where hundreds of thousands of tourists flock each year to see tulips and devour Dutch letters?

Then again, neither the windmill (reconstructed here in 1976) nor the Museum of Danish America (built in 1983) became magic bullets for massive regional tourism.

In that sense, Elk Horn has "more notoriety from across the pond than we do right here," says Gerry Greve, who delivers fuel to rural customers and owns the gas station on the north edge of town.

Birch already had left town by the time I catch up with Vølver, who lingered to capture more interviews and scenery. He also filmed Steen Riggs making rullepølse (spiced meat roll) at home with her daughter.

The sequel documentary tentatively is scheduled to air in March in Denmark and will be streamed online.

As we sit in the convenience store, Vølver's wife in New York texts him to ask, "How's Elk Horn today?"

Frigid, but poised to be more famous than ever back in Denmark.

Kyle Munson can be reached at 515-284-8124 or kmunson@dmreg.com. See more of his columns, blog posts and video at DesMoinesRegister.com/munson. Connect with him on Facebook (Kyle Munson's Iowa) and Twitter (@KyleMunson).